AGNC Investment (NASDAQ:AGNC) Trading Down 0.4% – Time to Sell?

AGNC Investment Corp. (NASDAQ:AGNC) fell 0.4% during mid-day trading on Wednesday . The company traded as low as $9.11 and last traded at $9.21. 21,129,969 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, an increase of 48% from the average session volume of 14,317,139 shares. The stock had previously closed at $9.25.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on AGNC shares. Wells Fargo & Company raised shares of AGNC Investment from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $10.00 to $12.00 in a report on Friday, September 20th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on AGNC Investment from $10.00 to $9.50 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, December 9th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered AGNC Investment from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Saturday, October 19th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $10.44.

AGNC Investment Trading Up 0.8 %

The firm has a market cap of $8.22 billion, a PE ratio of 6.44 and a beta of 1.47. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $9.53 and a 200 day simple moving average of $9.93. The company has a current ratio of 0.23, a quick ratio of 0.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01.

AGNC Investment (NASDAQ:AGNC) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 21st. The real estate investment trust reported $0.43 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.47 by ($0.04). AGNC Investment had a return on equity of 23.41% and a net margin of 42.19%. The firm had revenue of $756.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $219.50 million. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.65 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that AGNC Investment Corp. will post 1.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AGNC Investment Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a dec 24 dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 10th. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 31st will be issued a $0.12 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, December 31st. This represents a yield of 15.1%. AGNC Investment’s payout ratio is 100.00%.

Institutional Trading of AGNC Investment

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of AGNC. Confluence Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in AGNC Investment in the 4th quarter valued at $386,000. Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its holdings in AGNC Investment by 35.8% during the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 584,370 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $6,060,000 after purchasing an additional 154,029 shares in the last quarter. Peapack Gladstone Financial Corp acquired a new stake in shares of AGNC Investment in the third quarter valued at about $142,000. Tidal Investments LLC increased its stake in shares of AGNC Investment by 3.3% during the third quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 96,081 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,005,000 after purchasing an additional 3,075 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of AGNC Investment by 2.0% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 12,303,616 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $128,730,000 after purchasing an additional 242,640 shares during the last quarter. 38.28% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

AGNC Investment Company Profile

AGNC Investment Corp., formerly American Capital Agency Corp., is a real estate investment trust. The Company invests in agency residential mortgage-backed securities on a leveraged basis. Its investments consist of residential mortgage pass-through securities and collateralized mortgage obligations (CMOs) for which the principal and interest payments are guaranteed by a government-sponsored enterprise, such as the Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae) and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie Mac), or by the United States Government agency, such as the Government National Mortgage Association (Ginnie Mae) (collectively, GSEs).